As we all know Android 4.3 brought for us the capability to customise our Xperias with soothing themes and adding custom flavor to it
I am creating this tutorial to teach you how to create your own themes

Well they are the resources (pngs, xmls and other things which make your themes beautiful)
These can be found in assets folder in zip format

-> How to create assets?

Assets are basically the apks itself

To create assets I am giving you an example for Settings.apk

1. First decompile your Settings.apk
2. Go to res folder inside decompiled Settings and delete all the folders except the drawable-xxhdpi and values folder (as icon pngs are present in it)
3. Delete the smali and assets folder inside the decompiled Settings
4. Go to drawable-xxhdpi folder and delete the unwanted pngs which you do not wish to theme
5. Edit the pngs as desired using Paint.net or equivalent advanced png editor
6. Now go to values folder and and delete all the xml files except public.xml
7. Now open the public.xml in Notepad++ and paste the following code-

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
</resources>

8. Now open the AndroidManifest.xml of the Settings
Select all and paste the following code-

9. Now recompile the Settings folder
10. Open the recompiled apk and delete the MATA-INF folder (if present)
11. Now rename the recompiled Settings.apk to its package name i.e. com.android.settings.zip
12. Now paste the com.android.settings.zip to assets folder of the theme
13. Scroll down to learn how to add your newly created asset in the theme

The above steps can be used for any of the apk you wish to create assets for

-> How to add the assets?

I recommend you to add more and more custom assets to make your theme unique
For example you wish to add Settings.apk assets

1. Create the asset zip as explained above
2. Open the AndroidManifest.xml of the theme

You need to do this when you do not wish any resource to be modified
For example if you do not want the modifications to statusbar in your theme
Then go to assets folder and delete the com.android.systemui.zip

In my example theme I have 4 basic assets (SystemUI, Android, Home and SemcGeneric Accent)
So I am explaining one by one

1. The SystemUI and Home assets

Firstly go to assets folder of theme and copy the asset zip to main folder from where you can decompile it
Rename the com.sonyericsson.home.zip to com.sonyericsson.home.apk
Then decompile it using apktool or vts
Modify the decompiled folder pngs as desired using Paint.net or other and recompile it
Open the recompiled apk with winzip, 7z and delete the META-INF folder if present
Now rename the com.sonyericsson.home.apk to com.sonyericsson.home.zip
Paste it to assets folder of the decompiled theme

The above procedure can be repeated for systemui asset too

2. The Android assets

These are the most important assets of the theme
These decide the most of the UI as they are framework-res resources

To modify these-

Firstly go to assets folder of theme and copy the asset zip to main folder from where you can decompile it
Rename the android.zip to android.apk
Then decompile it using apktool or vts
Modify the decompiled folder pngs as desired using Paint.net or other and recompile it
Open the recompiled apk with winzip, 7z and delete the META-INF folder if present
Now rename the android.apk to android.zip
Paste it to assets folder of the decompiled theme

3. The Theme Accent assets

These decide the theme accent of the Sony Apps

To change the theme accent-

-> Firstly go to assets folder of theme and copy the asset zip to main folder from where you can decompile it
-> Rename the com.sonyericsson.uxp.zip to com.sonyericsson.uxp.apk
-> Then decompile it using apktool or vts
-> Go to res/values/colors.xml

I recommend you to keep the hex code according to theme wallpapers and framework-res assets color
To know the hex codes of the different colors visit ColorHexa website
More information about hex codes of colors

-> After finishing this edit recompile the asset
-> Open the recompiled apk with winzip, 7z and delete the META-INF folder if present
-> Now rename the com.sonyericsson.uxp.apk to com.sonyericsson.uxp.zip
-> Paste it to assets folder of the decompiled theme

STEP 6 - RECOMPILE THE THEME APK

Recompile the theme apk and sign it using Sign++

STEP 7 - TEST ON YOUR PHONE

Install your theme apk like normal app or push it to system/app
Make sure you have SuperUser Mod installed!
Enjoy and do share your themes with us

I think I could add transparency to whole status bar (in all apps) but can't decompile systemui.zip.

I found line in systemUI\res\values\drawables.xml line #ff000000>/item>

I think if we change ff00000 to #00000000 we could get transparency in all apps.
(#00000000 is for 100% transparency,
50% transparency is #80000000 and full opaque is #ff00000000)
But as I just said - can't decompile properly.

We should try to make this...

I'm at work now but if you have time, PM me and we could talk (maybe to join and create our little group on hangouts) and work on some projects together...

We could build nice things for everyone...

Or you try that...
If you delete that line drom systemUI and add it in drawable.xml in systemUI assets it could work in themes as well...

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